Medical Records

A succession of child-welfare professionals, including Department of Human Services social workers, a Family Court judge, city lawyers, and a doctor, all missed chances to rescue 6-year-old Khalil Wimes from the abusive parents who were charged with his murder in March, according to a state-mandated review of his death. Khalil was dead from head trauma, his emaciated corpse covered in scars, when his parents - Floyd Wimes, 48, and Tina Cuffie, 44 - took him to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia on the night of March 19. An Inquirer review showed Khalil spent the final months of his life beaten, undernourished, desperately ill, and out of school, all while DHS failed to recognize a child in danger.

A 57-year-old Gloucester County woman on Wednesday became the latest New Jersey resident diagnosed with possible fungal meningitis from a tainted steroid medication traced to a Framingham, Mass., pharmacy. The woman is recovering at South Jersey Healthcare Regional Medical Center in Vineland, the same place where she had the medication administered July 12, according to the state health department. An agency spokeswoman would not say where the woman lives. Seventeen probable cases of fungal meningitis and one confirmed case have been reported in the state, all in South Jersey.

Senate confirms Cuba-born judge WASHINGTON - The first Cuban-born judge to serve on the Atlanta-based U.S. appellate court was confirmed Wednesday by an overwhelming vote that said much about the way the Senate operates these days. Despite strong support from both parties, including tea party favorite Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.), the Senate had to break a filibuster to confirm U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jose Jordan, 94-5. The one-time clerk to now-retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is the newest member of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

NEW YORK - I was on Broadway when I suddenly walked right into Center City Philadelphia. It was weird - a big banner on the stage of the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre announced "PHILADELPHIA WELCOMES DELEGATES" and other signs told us we were at a 1960 presidential nominating convention. When the show started, Derek McLane's nifty set with rotating walls spun out to reveal a room in the Bellevue Stratford Hotel, which looked like the real thing from five decades back, down to the moldings.

MINNEAPOLIS - Some Minnesota lawmakers hope to force the release of Lou Gehrig's medical records, saying that they might provide insight into whether the Yankees star died of the disease that came to take his name or whether repetitive head trauma played some kind of role. Their effort comes despite opposition from Mayo Clinic, which holds the records, and skepticism from experts that the records alone would prove anything. Rep. Phyllis Kahn, a Minneapolis Democrat and self-described baseball fanatic, conceded that the records "probably won't show anything.

Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman asked the county coroner to examine the body of Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua last week because the timing of the 88-year-old prelate's death struck her as "peculiar," she said Friday. Ferman acknowledged that she enlisted county Coroner Walter I. Hofman because the cardinal died one day after a Philadelphia judge said Bevilacqua could be called to testify at the child sex-abuse and endangerment trial of three current and former priests.

Singer Lauryn Hill is facing the wrath of the federal government: The U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark, N.J., has charged the former Fugees singer with three counts of willfully failing to file income-tax returns. The IRS says Hill, 37, best known for her '98 solo record, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, never paid taxes on more than $1.6?mil she made over a three-year period. Hill, who lives in South Orange, N.J., must appear in federal court June 29. She faces up to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine for each count.

CHRIS POLK will tell you now that he had zero expectations heading into last month's NFL draft. "My expectation was just to get drafted," he said after a morning practice at the Eagles' 3-day rookie camp at NovaCare. That, of course, isn't quite true. It's one of those things players say after they've taken the kind of disappointing, look-out-below draft fall Polk took 2 weeks ago. The 5-11, 220-pound running back from the University of Washington, who is just one of seven players in Pac-12 history to rush for 4,000 yards, had hoped to be selected in the third — maybe even the second — round of the draft.

The physician was full of bluster, threatening to sue the software vendor that had landed his practice in a quagmire as it tried to convert from paper medical files to an electronic database. "I'm feeling betrayed," he said last week, sitting in a crowded back office. Office manager Liz Wiener listened, letting the sound wash over her as she slumped over a conference table. Beth Schindele, Delaware's high-tech equivalent of the state agricultural extension agent, nodded her head in sympathy.

SEN. McCAIN has chosen Gov. Palin, who is clearly unprepared to be the vice president during such a turbulent, chaotic, and pivotal time. So it's vital that voters know the facts about McCain's health and demand that his medical records be fully released. We have yet to see a full, public release of McCain's medical records. A "release" in May was restricted to about 20 reporters, and they were allowed only three hours to review 1,173 pages. They were not allowed to make copies, consult with medical experts or use cell phones or have Internet access during their review.